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Topics: Medicine

  • EU project will increase researcher access to biobanks

    All of us stand to benefit from large European health studies, but it is not always easy for researchers to collaborate across national borders. To help enable collaboration, the international EU-funded project BBMRI-LPC will spend the next four years working to increase researchers’ access to samples and data. Researchers at Uppsala University have a key role in the project.

  • Genes behind obesity mapped in large-scale study

    An international research team has identified seven new gene loci linked to obesity. Researchers were also able to show that the genetic mechanisms that cause extreme obesity are similar to those that cause milder forms of overweight and obesity.

  • PCBs can increase risk of lowered heart function

    There is a connection between high levels of PCBs and the heart’s ability to pump. The study is the latest of several from the Uppsala University research group showing health issues caused by PCBs, even though their use has been banned for some time.

  • New technology platform launched at SciLifeLab in Uppsala

    An advanced chip that swiftly and with extremely high sensitivity can measure 92 different tumour proteins from 92 different patients is now available at SciLifeLab in Uppsala. The new technology will become an important resource for researchers and companies developing diagnostics for different illnesses.

  • Lack of sleep? Keep away from the buffet

    New research from Uppsala University shows that sleep-deprived people select greater portion sizes of energy-dense snacks and meals than they do after one night of normal sleep. Poor sleep habits can therefore affect people’s risk of becoming overweight in the long run. The findings are published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.

  • Researchers guardians of trust in biobank research

    Do we trust biobank researchers? In a doctoral thesis from Uppsala University, medical doctor and bioethicist Linus Johnsson claims that we do: At least in Sweden. And since we do, researchers in turn have a moral responsibility towards us.

  • Ethical challenges of human brain simulation

    One of the greatest challenges of modern science is understanding the human brain. Uppsala University’s Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB) is part of the European Commission flagship initiative to simulate the human brain and will look at the philosophical and ethical implications of this.

  • Anthropological expertise facilitates multicultural women's health care

    Collaboration between medical and anthropological expertise can solve complex clinical problems in today's multicultural women's healthcare, shows Pauline Binder, a medical anthropologist, who will present her thesis on 1 December at the Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University.

  • Finally! The pig genome is mapped

    In a major international study, the pig genome is now mapped. Researchers from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have contributed to the study by analysing genes that played a key role in the evolution of the domesticated pig and by mapping endogenous retroviruses (ERV), retroviruses whose genes have become part of the host organism’s genome.

  • Migratory birds’ ticks can spread viral haemorrhagic fever

    A type of haemorrhagic fever (Crimean-Congo) that is prevalent in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans has begun to spread to new areas in southern Europe. Now Swedish researchers have shown that migratory birds carrying ticks are the possible source of contagion. The discovery is being published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

  • Evolution of new genes in the laboratory in real time

    How new genes arise poses a fundamental biological question. New findings by researchers at Uppsala University and in the US show that it is possible to get new genes to develop in a laboratory environment using a rapid, stepwise process where an already existing gene with multiple functions is initially amplified.

  • Disorder in protein interactions

    It was long believed that proteins need to be well structured to function, but during the last decade it has become clear that disorder is often crucial for function. Now, a research team at Uppsala University has shed light on how such disordered proteins interact with each other.

  • Fear can be erased from the brain

    Newly formed emotional memories can be erased from the human brain. This is shown by researchers from Uppsala University in a new study now being published by the academic journal Science. The findings may represent a breakthrough in research on memory and fear.

  • Participation in biobank research – a moral duty?

    The potential value of biobank research is immense. But why should you contribute? In a doctoral thesis from Uppsala University, Joanna Stjernschantz Forsberg claims that we have a moral duty to take part in biobank research.

  • Cloned receptor paves way for new breast and prostate cancer treatment

    Researchers at Uppsala University have cloned a T-cell receptor that binds to an antigen associated with prostate cancer and breast cancer. T cells that have been genetically equipped with this T-cell receptor have the ability to specifically kill prostate and breast cancer cells. The study is being published this week in PNAS.

  • A single gene has a major impact on gaits in horses and in mice

    Researchers have discovered a mutation in a single gene in horses that is critical for the ability to perform ambling gaits, for pacing and that has a major effect on performance in harness racing. The study, which is published in Nature today, is a breakthrough for our understanding of spinal cord neuronal circuitry and its control of locomotion in vertebrates.

  • Disturbance during foetal period behind severe eye disease

    The congenital eye disease persistent foetal vasculature syndrome leads to bleeding, detached retina, and a cloudy lens. Now researchers at Uppsala University show in a model for the disease that it may be associated with an excessive expression of a growth factor during the foetal period.

  • Link found between environmental pollutants and stroke

    Individuals with elevated levels of PCBs and DDT in their blood run a greater risk of having a stroke. This is shown in a study from Uppsala University that is being published today in the scientific journal Environmental International.

  • How proteins find their way on chromosomes

    A research team at Uppsala University has managed to clarify how proteins that regulate the activity of genes quickly find their way on chromosomes among millions of possible binding sites. The study also confirms a more than 30-year-old theory about the process. The findings are being published today in the scientific journal Science.

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